Blinken congratulates Shahbaz on becoming Pakistan's new PM
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulates Shehbaz Sharif on his election as Pakistan's new Prime Minister.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, congratulated Pakistan's new PM, Shehbaz Sharif, on his election as Pakistan's new Prime Minister.
Shehbaz Sharif was elected by the joint opposition following the sidelining of PTI Chairman Imran Khan in a no-confidence vote.
Sharif received 174 votes against PTI's Shah Mahmoud Qureshi's 0 votes, one of the reasons being that his party boycotted the election.
Blinken congratulated Sharif in the early hours of Thursday and pledged to continue working with the new Pakistani government.
On Sunday, the Pakistani parliament ousted Khan in a vote of no confidence. The following day, the parliament elected opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif from the Pakistan Muslim League-N as the country's new prime minister.
Khan has described the move to topple him as an "attempt to change the regime by support from the United States."
"The move to oust me is [a] blatant interference in domestic politics by the United States," Khan said in a statement to a group of foreign journalists on Saturday.
